Cedar-Riverside Neighborhood

Summary: The Cedar-Riverside neighborhood was a major entry point for immigrants to Minneapolis. European settlement began during the mid-19th century when Fort Snelling opened land for civilian settlement. The area grew rapidly during the late 19th century and Cedar-Riverside's population peaked in 1910 at 20,000. Immigrants from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark were among the largest communities in the neighborhood which gave it a reputation as a Scandinavian enclave. Cedar Avenue was nicknamed "snoos" boulevard in reference to Swedish chewing tobacco. Yet, the houses of worship in Cedar-Riverside reflect a diversity of immigrant communities including Swedish, Irish, and German. There was also a significant population of Romanian Jews that lived in the area.

Body: The Cedar Riverside neighborhood was a major entry point for immigrants to Minneapolis. European settlement began during the mid-19th century when Fort Snelling opened land for civilian settlement. The area grew rapidly during the late 19th century and Cedar-Riverside's population peaked in 1910 at 20,000. Immigrants from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark were among the largest communities in the neighborhood which gave it a reputation as a Scandinavian enclave. Cedar Avenue was nicknamed "snoos" boulevard in reference to Swedish chewing tobacco. Yet, the houses of worship in Cedar-Riverside reflect a diversity of immigrant communities including Swedish, Irish, and German. There was also a significant population of Romanian Jews that lived in the area. Historical Background on Cedar-Riverside The growth of Cedar-Riverside parallels the development of the city of Minneapolis. Both grew from civilian settlements on the Fort Snelling Military Reservation on the banks of the Mississippi River. Fort Snelling officially prohibited civilian settlement, however many people staked claims on the land and used "squatters rights" to obtain preliminary permits for settlement. Many of these claims were made legal in 1854 when Fort Snelling was opened for general settlement.[1] Squatters were allowed to purchase land and the settlements on the west bank grew.[bib]10[/bib],[fn] The first group of squatters was known as the Selkirk Colony, a group of Dutch Tillers who first came to the area in 1826. Eventually they were kicked out, but it was not long until more pioneers came who intended to stay and the population eventually grew into the thousands.[/fn] In the 1860s and 1870s, Minneapolis developed rapidly as a center for the lumber and flour industries which attracted new immigrants to the area. By 1880, approximately one-third of Minnesota’s population was foreign-born, 267,000 of the 781,000.[fn]ibid., 15.[/fn] Most of the immigrants were of German or Scandinavian descent. Neighborhoods in Minneapolis grew from first-generation immigrant settlements. Germans settled mainly on the southern side of the city, while many Norwegians, Swedes and Danes stayed closer to the river. Cedar-Riverside and the nearby Seward and Powderhorn neighborhoods originated from these immigrant enclaves. This pattern of immigrant settlement in Minneapolis differed from that of large urban areas on the east coast. Many immigrants preferred to settle in neighborhoods on the outskirts of the downtown instead of staying in overcrowded tenement housing in the downtown. These outlying areas provided cheaper land and low-cost housing for new workers coming to the city. Cedar-Riverside, first known as Seven Corners and then Riverside, was one of the earliest neighborhoods of Minneapolis. Among the early settlers was Captain Edward Murphy, a 2nd generation Irish migrant who moved to Minnesota from New Jersey in 1850. In 1852, Murphy staked a claim that included a large portion of the area that would become Cedar-Riverside, just west of the Mississippi River and an emerging downtown Minneapolis. He faced several challenges to his land claim by other settlers but eventually was able to purchase 80 acres when Fort Snelling opened the area for settlement. When platting his land, Murphy set aside land for a public park, the first in Minneapolis. Murphy planted apple orchards but then turned to raising cattle. He did not fence his property which led to the first lawsuit in the county when his cattle destroyed a nearby crop of corn. Murphy was very active in public affairs and donated a lot of his time and money to building early infrastructure (the first bridges) and establishing early Minneapolis institutions such as schools and courts, in addition to creating a thriving steamboat company. He is described in Atwater's 1893 History of Minneapolis as a “clear headed and fair minded man.” After his death, Murphy's land was donated to the Sisters of Mercy, and eventually became St. Mary’s Hospital. By 1860 the area west of Cedar Avenue had been developed with streets, housing and designated lots.[fn]ibid., 15.[/fn] Murphy’s farm was quickly becoming an urban neighborhood. Seven Corners was close to the lumber yards and flour mills in downtown Minneapolis (a mile east of downtown). The area developed along the two main thoroughfares of Cedar and Riverside Avenues. Cheap housing was hastily constructed to meet the growing needs of immigrants and land-use in Seven Corners was a random mix of residential and commercial properties, like many urban neighborhoods of the time. There was no structured neighborhood planning and people built where they could. The transient nature of the immigrant population also reinforced this pattern of haphazard development. Most of the housing in Seven Corners and Riverside consisted of poorly constructed homes that were packed with people. By 1890, the Seven Corners area had expanded and become widely known as Riverside (even though Seven Corners has remained a distinct area in the neighborhood). It was mostly a first-generation, working-class immigrant settlement. Two-thirds of the 8,000 residents were foreign-born, and most were from Scandinavian countries.[bib]9[/bib] Most worked in the lumber and flour mills that were close enough for residents to walk to work, “A distinctive feature of morning and evening street scenes in those far off days was the dinner pail brigade,” remembered Carl Hanson, a Minneapolis resident who wrote about early immigrant history in Minneapolis in My Minneapolis.[bib]8[/bib] Others found jobs along Cedar, Riverside and Washington Avenues that bustled with drugstores, clothing stores, grocery stores and saloons. Most of these shops had a distinctly Scandinavian identity and served the Scandinavian community in the Twin Cities area.[fn]ibid, pp. 145-152.[/fn] Cedar Avenue was even nicknamed “Snoos Boulevard” after snus, the name of the chewing tobacco many early Scandinavian immigrants used. The nickname lasted through much of the twentieth century and is still used today.

 

Category: People     Neighborhood: Cedar Riverside